I tend to grow a little impatient with folks who say, “I wouldn’t have anything but a real book.” When Greg and I lived with the kids in a big old, rambling Baltimore row house, we had plenty of room for all the bound volumes and paperbacks our hearts desired.
This isn’t my situation now. As a widowed empty nester, I live with a cat in an apartment so small I have to step outside to change my mind. I cast a jealous eye on the collapsible toothbrushes. I have managed to preserve and bring one tall Billy and two shorts with all the books I just couldn’t get rid of. This means that Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Kindle reader have become my friends.
The thing to remember about the Kindle is that you don’t own the titles. You own a license to read and use them as long as you follow the rules. When the ‘Zon began whatever shenanigans it undertook with our collections earlier this spring, I found that an e-copy of Pride and Prejudice, carefully annotated by me, was no longer available. I guess my license had expired. Fortunately, I have numerous bound editions of Austen’s work, including a prized mid-1800’s edition of her complete works. My favorite bookseller, Better World Books, furnished me with a nice used copy of Pride and Prejudice which I can mark as I please.
Now I must pause for a confession. I have strayed a bit from the pure world of Austenesque fiction and into the wildly romantic, time-traveling world of Jamie and Claire Fraser of Outlander. Yes, I have visited a distant fire and found it immensely enjoyable, though it is not a candidate for fan-fictionalizing, character development, adventures in other time periods, or anything else of the sort. The author, Diana Gabaldon, is still very much with us and very much opposed to such shenanigans, and her wishes ought to be respected. The series has been successfully televised and has a large and devout fandom, of which I am a member. In my view, Amazon Kindle would not suffice if I couldn’t rely on it. I wanted to own these volumes. I wanted to own the books in a tangible form. I couldn’t face waking up some morning to find I was missing some Kindle license or other and could not drop in on the Frasers at will.
My pocketbook would not allow for new hardcovers or even new trade paperbacks. Better World Books filled the breach again, and I was soon unpacking nine precious trade paperbacks, gently used and for the most part retired from assorted public library collections. I eagerly glanced inside Volume 1, Outlander.
Unfortunately for my eyes (though fortunately for my reading pleasure), the volumes are—well, they are voluminous, each running to a thousand-odd pages. The print is what would once have been called “agate,” or in the neighborhood of eight points. While I’ve had my cataracts corrected, I couldn’t handle them even with my bifocals.
At that juncture, something came over me. I wanted to re-read the series, which is still awaiting publication of its tenth and final volume. My eyes were feeling distinctly tired. And I was aggravated enough with Amazon that I wanted to try something new. A voice in my head whispered “audiobooks.” It then yelled “AUDIOBOOKS.”
When the voice got to “WHATTHEHELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR,” I took the plunge. The best buy I could find ended up by being a small company called Libro.fm, where a portion of the sales go to an author’s “home” bookstore. The author’s “home” bookstore for Outlander is an indy bookseller in Arizona called “The Poisoned Pen,”—my favorite kind of place to buy stuff to read. The series is being re-released with a favorite actress as the reader. Finally, Libro has a good, established record when it comes to diversity, inclusion, equality, and all those other things I am doing my best to support. I jumped.
I had all kinds of questions and trepidation as I got started. Would I be able to hear the reader? (Due to my faulty hearing, this was a real concern.) Would it grow tedious to hear one reader doing all the voices? How would the reader manage the men’s voices, being a woman? Would I feel silly or bored being read to? Would I be able to do other tasks while being read to? Would I be able to stay awake? Most of all, would I retain what was read?
It took a couple of days, a couple of hundred pages, but I’m happy to report that I’m becoming a convert. Here are my answers, all in a row:
- Faulty hearing: My Apple AirPods Pro 2 took care of this right away. There was a learning curve as I connected them to both my Mac and my iPhone.
- Voices: The reader is very good at what she does, and I can keep the voices straight. There isn’t any tedium at all associated with the process.
- Bored Silly: Happily, no. I find the story just as compelling as if I were reading it to myself. And I seem to retain it just as well.
- Awake: Yes. I don’t use the app to read in bed, so I don’t read myself to sleep. That might change.
- Tasks: Meh. I can knit or crochet as long as it is straight rows. I pay a penalty in attention whenever I have to consult a pattern. This differs from TV, where I can divide my attention easily. I can’t sort things on paper. I can sort laundry. I can’t do manual labor like the dishes. I don’t drive, so I don’t know about that. I could probably ride along with someone on a long trip quite happily. The result is that I sit back, relax, and enjoy being read to.
- Retention: Absolutely not a problem.
I would happily recommend an audiobook to anyone curious enough or interested enough to try one. You may find yourself a happy convert as I have done. I’ll probably get audiobooks of a lot of contemporary fiction I once read on my Kindle. You can bet I’ll finish my re-reading of Outlander on audiobooks.
I can’t make any blanket recommendations to authors because I’m not actively publishing at the moment, so I can’t really judge how I would plan for audiobooks. I do know that we have a few very fine readers ready to work on Austen fiction and turn it into magic, and I would be very tempted to try.
Finally, I don’t know the in’s and out’s of the audiobook publishing industry. One hears strange things. I have what looks to be a very straightforward arrangement to order one audiobook each month for a reasonable price. The book is mine, and I can download it whenever I see fit. I seem to have dodged whatever those unknown “strange things” are by selecting a small indie audiobook dealer affiliated with a small indie bookseller. If I want more audiobooks each month, I can increase the amount I pay for membership or purchase credits. Customer service is prompt, helpful, and welcoming to newcomers. The dealer provides an online reader, a “library” space for purchases, and reader apps for both iOS and Android. Other readers may be used.
In short, I’m a happy camper and a happy reader. I’ve just started reading/listening to Volume 2, Dragonfly in Amber, and now that I have finished this blog post, I’m looking forward to it immensely.
Note 1: There are a number of commercial entities mentioned in this post, and I have refrained from publishing links. Feel free to contact me in the comments, and I’ll be glad to put you in touch with Better World Books, The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, or Libro.fm, the audiobooks seller.
Note 2: About the AirPods Pro 2. People who know me well, know that for the past eight years ago, I have been a community health worker and peer mentor serving the community of people with age-related hearing loss. I’m proud and honored that if all goes well, I’ll be taking up that service again in a couple of months. On my own, I have found the Apple AirPods Pro 2 to be useful and helpful with my own hearing loss issues—hence the picture at the top of the happy lady with white hair. All this is just to remind you to get your hearing checked! By the time we hit seventy, almost two-thirds of us have some hearing loss, and it isn’t pretty. Visit your doctor and ask for a referral to a hearing specialist. You owe it to yourself!
Note 3: Do you recommend Outlander? Ehrmegerd, yes! Just don’t ask me to choose between Mr. Darcy and Jamie Fraser!
Leave a Reply to Regina JeffersCancel reply